New York man rearrested when more phony bills are found

John Nickerson

Updated 9:27 pm, Tuesday, January 14, 2014

STAMFORD -- A New York City man arrested in mid-November for allegedly trying to pass 26 counterfeit $20 bills was arrested again Tuesday after more phony bills turned up that police said were from his previous papering foray in Stamford.

John Flowers, 61, of New York, was charged with seven more counts of first-degree forgery, two counts of sixth-degree larceny and a single count of criminal attempt at sixth-degree larceny.

According to Flowers' five-page arrest affidavit, he was arrested on Nov. 16 after a loss prevention officer at the Alvord Lane Stop & Shop called police just before 6 p.m. to report that someone had tried to pass a fake $20 bill.

Police found Flowers leaving the store, and when he was searched they found 17 more bills in a pants pocket and discovered that he spent three more fake bills inside.

After Flowers was arrested, police said three more businesses came forward to claim they too were passed phony $20s on the same day, the affidavit said.

A manager at Grade-A-Shoprite on West Main Street said between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. that day an older, light-skinned black man attempted to buy some items and pay for them with a fake bill. The cashier saw the bill was fake and held onto it, while the man passing it walked out of the store.

Surveillance tape from the store shows a man matching Flowers' description making the transaction.

A Subway sandwich store manager on West Main Street said a cashier took four counterfeit bills a little after 3 p.m. on Nov. 16 and passed them on to a customer who had two of them taken away by a neighboring store.

A Carvel ice cream employee told police that a black man passed two counterfeit bills in his store on West Main Street. A surveillance tape in the Carvel shows a man closely fitting Flowers' description passing the bills to the cashier, the affidavit said.

All the bills had the same serial number as the phony bills recovered on Nov. 16, the affidavit said.